Shakespeare In Love
Watched Shakespeare In Love for the second time (the first being 10 years ago on the telly).
Didn't like it then, and don't like it any better now. Not even as a clever pastiche. It'd have worked brilliantly as an episode of Blackadder or even Doctor Who. Perhaps as a play put on by a university drama society. But not as a film, and how it won so many Oscars is beyond my understanding.
It doesn't really help that I find Viola, Thomas Kent and all incarnations of Gwyneth Paltrow slightly annoying. It's mostly the 2-dimensional way Viola is written, as I don't dislike Paltrow generally. But she either doesn't have, or doesn't dare display much range as an actress here. In SIL she is not only inadequate, she is utterly undesirable.
The conundrum is, of course, that you need someone androgynous to play Viola/Kent. When I read the list of actresses initially in the running for the part - Julia Roberts, Kate Winslet, Winona Ryder - I cringe. Kate Winslet might have acted it beautifully, but is really too voluptuous to pull off the illusion. Now Tilda Swinton might have been an inspired choice, but wouldn't have been young enough for the role, nor would have had much chemistry with Joe Fiennes.
Speaking of which, if you want a film that is simultaneously poignant, camp, luscious, uplifting, well-crafted, and does tongue-in-cheek references to famous historical characters, go rent Sally Potter's Orlando. And it has great music!
Didn't like it then, and don't like it any better now. Not even as a clever pastiche. It'd have worked brilliantly as an episode of Blackadder or even Doctor Who. Perhaps as a play put on by a university drama society. But not as a film, and how it won so many Oscars is beyond my understanding.
It doesn't really help that I find Viola, Thomas Kent and all incarnations of Gwyneth Paltrow slightly annoying. It's mostly the 2-dimensional way Viola is written, as I don't dislike Paltrow generally. But she either doesn't have, or doesn't dare display much range as an actress here. In SIL she is not only inadequate, she is utterly undesirable.
The conundrum is, of course, that you need someone androgynous to play Viola/Kent. When I read the list of actresses initially in the running for the part - Julia Roberts, Kate Winslet, Winona Ryder - I cringe. Kate Winslet might have acted it beautifully, but is really too voluptuous to pull off the illusion. Now Tilda Swinton might have been an inspired choice, but wouldn't have been young enough for the role, nor would have had much chemistry with Joe Fiennes.
Speaking of which, if you want a film that is simultaneously poignant, camp, luscious, uplifting, well-crafted, and does tongue-in-cheek references to famous historical characters, go rent Sally Potter's Orlando. And it has great music!